February 16, 1862 (Sunday): "Unconditional Surrender" Grant

Dover Hotel (NPS)

[Inclosure Numbers 3.]

HEADQUARTERS ARMY IN THE FIELD,
Camp near Fort Donelson, February 16, 1862.

SIR: Yours of this date, proposing armistice and appointment of commissioners to settle terms of capitulation, is just received. No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.
I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
U. S. GRANT,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.
General S. B. BUCKNER,
Confederate Army.
[Inclosure Numbers 4.]

HEADQUARTERS,
Dover, Tenn., February 16, 1862.

SIR: The distribution of the forces under my command incident to an unexpected change of commanders and the overwhelming force under your command compel me, notwithstanding the brilliant success of the Confederate army yesterday, to accept the ungenerous an unchivalrous terms which you propose.
I am, sir, your very obedient servant, 


S. B. BUCKNER,
Brigadier-General, C. S. Army. 

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 7, Part 1, Page 161.

It is difficult to overstate the impact of Fort Donelson’s capture on the war.  It forced the Confederate Army from Kentucky, opened Middle Tennessee to the threat of invasion, and provided a tremendous morale boost to the Northern cause.  There were three Confederate generals at Donelson (Floyd, the ranking officer, Pillow, and Donelson).  After opening a line to remove the garrison and fall back into Tennessee, Pillow ordered his men back to their entrenchments.  Grant, on a gunboat during the attack, returned and ordered a counterattack which established the Union forces in a commanding position.  Floyd and Pillow escaped, along with Forrest’s cavalary, and Buckner surrendered 12,000 men to Grant, hereafter known as “Unconditional Surrender”.